HYDERABAD, Sept 23: The Sindh chapter of All Pakistan Clerks’ Association, has expressed concern over the proposed scrapping of the project, “Decentralised Elementary Education Project” (Deep) and the transfer of all its funds to the Karachi city government.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Sunday, the provincial president of the association, Asadullah Durrani, senior vice-president Zulfiqar Ali Shaikh and others said that Deep was the biggest project of the provincial education department which had been introduced for the promotion of education in the rural areas.

They said that the project was being run in Sindh with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank.

They alleged that since the project was exclusively meant for the promotion of education in the rural areas, it had become an eyesore of anti-Sindh elements.

They said a conspiracy was being hatched to abolish this mega project and the planning and development department of Sindh had also got approved a summary in this regard.

The office-bearers of the association said that the main reason given for the closure of this project was that it was not working properly, therefore, it should be closed and all of its funds be transferred to the Karachi city district government.

“Which department of the Sindh government is working properly”, they asked and wondered why the axe had fallen on Deep.

They demanded that Deep should be allowed to work under the present format and an honest officer should be appointed as its project director as this post was lying vacant and the project should not be closed till its objectives were realised.

They further demanded that scholarship of Rs2,000 per annum should immediately been released for 7640 poor, destitute and deserving students of class-IX.

They warned that if the proposal to dissolve Deep was not shelved, the clerks of Sindh will resort to protest and would also seek remedy from the court of law.

They said that project was started in 2004 and will end in 2009. They said that the total allocation of the project is Rs5.88 billion.